# LaTeX to Markdown

Move a LaTeX draft into portable Markdown while keeping headings, prose, lists, links, and useful math.

LaTeX to Markdown strips away much of the document machinery and leaves a draft that is easy to read in plain text, publish in a Markdown system, or hand to a collaborator who does not need the original class and packages.

## Use it when

- the writing matters more than exact page design;
- you are moving notes or a draft into a wiki, repository, or Markdown editor;
- you want a simpler source for review or reuse.

Keep the LaTeX version when publisher commands, floats, custom macros, or exact citation behavior are part of the deliverable.

## Convert a draft

1. Open **LaTeX to Markdown**, or run `/latex-to-markdown`.
2. Paste the LaTeX source.
3. Choose **Convert**.
4. Review the Markdown result.
5. Copy it, save `converted.md`, or create a Markdown project.

For example:

```latex
\section{Method}
We minimize $L(\theta)$ with three constraints.
\begin{itemize}
  \item Bounded error
  \item Stable updates
\end{itemize}
```

becomes a heading, paragraph, inline dollar-delimited math, and a Markdown list.

## What needs a second look

The conversion runs locally with bundled Pandoc. Headings, emphasis, links, lists, code, and common math usually map cleanly. Custom commands, layout packages, complex tables, publisher-specific environments, and raw TeX may not.

Check reference links, footnotes, images, math delimiters, and bibliography output. If a macro carries meaning rather than style, replace or expand it before conversion so that meaning is not lost.

For an editable word-processing handoff, use [LaTeX to Word](/docs/tools/latex-to-word/). For a reflowing web copy with MathML, use [LaTeX to HTML](/docs/tools/latex-to-html/).